Indonesian plane plunges into sea

All 101 passengers and 7 crew of an Indonesian aircraft have survived a terrifying crash into the sea just off Bali on Saturday afternoon.

The crash happened just after 5.15pm AEST when the Boeing 737, which had come from the popular shopping town of Bandung, West Java, apparently ditched short of the Ngurah Rai runway after the pilot reported engine troubles.

An unverified image of the aircraft largely intact but with a cracked fuselage, floating in the sea and surrounded by lifeboats has quickly surfaced on social media. Reports state the aircraft partially broke up upon crashing into the sea.

A plane has crashed off the coast of Bali. Photo: Supplied

The injured have been taken to the nearby Sanglah Hospital, with all injuries reportedly minor.

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A French passenger on the plane, Jean Grandy, said outside Sanglah hospital that about two minutes before landing there was heavy rain.

The next thing he knew was they were on the water and sinking. He said the cabin crew were "extremely professional" and made sure everybody got out.

Relieved... Jean Grandy

The last person off was a stewardess who could not swim, he told reporters. "I've been in rougher landings. It didn't feel like we were crashing. We just suddenly sank. I didn't see anyone badly hurt - a few cuts maybe. I just got a small cut near my elbow. I lost everything ... my iPad, my glasses, my phone all gone."

An Australian surfer who has lived in Bali for 20 years said he had been surfing nearby when the plane had hit the water.

"It sounded like a thunderclap," he said.

The man, who did not want to be named, was surfing a small swell in Jimbaran Bay with a friend, Craig Huddleston, and their children when the plane dropped short of the runway about 300 metres away from him in water about two metres deep.

The two men put the children in at the beach then paddled over to help. By the time the reached the plane, most of the passengers were already on the wing or climbing onto the rocks. He helped one man from the plane to shore on his surfboard.

Mr Huddleston, also a long time Bali resident, told Fairfax Media: "We approached the plane and about three-quarters back of the fuselage was broken in two places, one of the engines was detached about 20 metres away, so it was detached from the wing.

"There was very little fuel in the water, which leads me to believe they dumped it. If the pilot intentionally did a water landing, jeez, he missed the runway by about 50m," he said.

The Australian Consulate-General in Bali is currently determining whether any Australians were onboard.

Since its establishment in 2000, the airline’s safety record has come under attack, with both the US and European Union banning the airline from its skies because it has failed to pass the required internationally recognised safety audit.

It has been involved in five crashes and major incidents in recent years. One of those crashes, in 2004, claimed the lives of 25 people.

It has also faced numerous complaints about its pilots using methamphetamines and attending "drug parties".

The Indonesian Transportation Ministry sanctioned it last year because several of its pilots and crew had been found in possession of crystal methamphetamines.

"We have reprimanded the airline and revoked the license of the pilots and crew," the ministry’s air transportation director general, Herry Bhakti Gumay, said at the time.

Despite its reputation, it has aggressive expansion plans and in March ordered 234 planes worth US$24-billion from Airbus. Entry into the Australian market is part of that plan, something it planned to do in 2008 in conjunction with Brisbane-based charter airline SkyAirWorld. Those plans were abandoned the following year after the collapse of SkyAirWorld. It is the largest private carrier in Indonesia.